Bottas claims Cadillac's new facilities already surpass those of dominant Mercedes

Valtteri Bottas has declared that Cadillac’s Formula 1 facilities in Silverstone are already superior to those of Mercedes, the team with which he won all 10 of his grand prix victories between 2017 and 2021. Asked directly by the Financial Times whether Cadillac’s base beats the Brackley operation, Bottas gave a simple answer: “I would say so.”

The claim carries weight precisely because Bottas knows both sites. His five seasons alongside Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes gave him an insider’s view of the most decorated team of the hybrid era, and Cadillac’s Silverstone headquarters sits only a short drive from it.

Teammate Sergio Perez, who spent four years at Red Bull before joining the new American entry, was equally effusive after a recent visit to the factory. “I’ve never seen a factory like this in my career. It’s really, really impressive,” he said. Perez pointed to the newness of everything as the defining factor: “The equipment they have, the platforms, how nicely it is connected, all the different departments. It’s like a new home, very well organised.”

Cadillac’s manufacturing facility at Silverstone is now fully operational, while construction continues simultaneously on American-based installations. The team’s headquarters is being built in Fishers, Indiana, with powertrain development centred in North Carolina.

The gleaming infrastructure has not yet translated into results. Seventeen races into the season, Cadillac has yet to score a point, and Bottas has retired from eight of those rounds. He does not dispute the numbers but insists the trajectory is positive. “We are definitely seeing an improvement somewhere every weekend,” he said. “It’s not necessarily in the results yet, but it’s in how we operate as a team in different areas.”

Bottas also offered a candid explanation for why on-track progress has been slow to materialise. “Once you have issues, whether it’s in practice or qualifying, that’s when you can’t improve. You’re just trying to fix the issues instead of focusing on performance and making the car faster.”

On his own role in accelerating that development, the Finn was measured. “The main thing is trying to get the most out of myself and trying to be the best version of myself that I can. It’s the same with the people around me. In the end, that’s all we can do.”